Human Cloning: A Discovery We Should Not Pursue

The human race has come a long way. Our hunger for knowledge never ends, and the more we discover, the longer the path gets. Every day, a new idea gets developed, a new theory proven, and a new product invented or enhanced. The constant change in this world and our ability to adapt to it is the core of our survival.

It is always been our goal to discover things for our convenience. The subject of cloning has been explored by scientists as an option to prolong human life. Several studies and successful experiments have been conducted on animals. It was in 1996 when the first mammal was cloned through cell cloning. Dolly the sheep lived for six years, and her embryo was created by taking a cell from her biological mother and inserting it in a sheep ovum.

However, the question still remains to be seen on whether we can now clone humans. The closest things we have to biological creation is IV treatment and surrogate, helping parents with physical issues conceive and have children.

As of today, we can only explore possibilities through science fiction movies and literature. Story lines are often about how human clones are made to support organ harvesting and surrogacy. We have been trying to prolong human life ever since the peak of technology and so far we have been successful. Today’s mortality rate is about 70 years compared to the lifespan of people from 100 years ago, thanks to our advancement in medicine and technology. Is there, then, a need for us to create an exact replica of ourselves to only harvest them for the anatomy we need? Do we really need to create copies of ourselves? Are the copies we create still us, or are they different, albeit with the same DNA structure?

If we can produce clones, what’s to say we cannot engineer our genetics? We already have the capabilities to make unnatural changes to ourselves, though most of them are only physical. We can now change our sex, change our physical structures- but what if we can also alter our DNAs to create abilities beyond human? Cloning opens many possibilities in scientific research. When we are able to replicate DNA, what stops us from creating and enhancing it? We might accidentally have beings who are human but so different from us in a way that they have powers we have only imagined.

Mutation is our bodies’ answer to the change around us in order to equip our race with change. Natural evolution shows how different species have survived through mutation, and how most are extinct because of their inability to adapt. The human race, being at the top, with our critical and logical thinking being our greatest assets in survival, has not even stopped evolving yet, since we are the only beings capable of riding with the current of change.

The more we explore and enjoy our convenience, the more ways we end the human race. Viruses emerge, the climate is changing rapidly, and we have weapons at our disposal that can wipe places off the map. We are more divided than ever- with unending wars being fought because of borders, race, inequality. Human cloning can solidify gaps in the society in ways of who can afford it and who can produce it.

The greatest fear we should consider in human cloning is that that replica of you can replace you, but who’s to say that it’s still you? Since they are genetically engineered, will they be better than us? What will happen if they decide that their purpose isn’t what just we have for them, but that they want their own lives? Is it humane to create clones without giving them rights, and only considering them as science products? Is it not the same as also harvesting our fellow humans, because with their biological make up, despite of how they were made, they are still humans.

It will be an unending debate, but as of today there are no discoveries that are publicly announced that human cloning is possible.

Perhaps what makes us human is our limitations, but going beyond also made us what we are now. The human race will never end, we will just always shape into what is required of us, and of us in the present, all we can do is imagine and hope that we still retain our humanity throughout our journey in the future.

Studies:

Lassen, J.; Gjerris, M.; Sandøe, P. (2005). “After Dolly—Ethical limits to the use of biotechnology on farm animals,” A study on the successful cloning attempt on mammals

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Jeshea is a writer who writes for lost souls waiting to be found, a demigod who has managed fairly on her own now that she is out of camp. She is now in the desert with her panda Cheng Shi who keeps the monsters at bay.

The Writer

Jeshea is a writer who writes for lost souls waiting to be found, a demigod who has managed fairly on her own now that she is out of camp. She is now in the desert with her panda Cheng Shi who keeps the monsters at bay.